The present invention relates to hopper loader assemblies used in an apparatus which forms sheet material assemblages.
Circular machines for forming sheet material assemblages, such as newspapers or similar articles, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,461,573 and 2,634,971. During operation of these circular machines, newspapers or other sheet material assemblages are sequentially transferred from bottom opening pockets into a lapped stream on a delivery conveyor. Hopper loader assemblies, similar to the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,674,258; 3,690,650 and 3,945,633 have been used to supply sheet material to hoppers at feed stations. The use of a hopper loader assembly to supply sheet material to a circular machine which forms sheet material assemblages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,716.
In the past, difficulties have been encountered in using hopper loader assemblies to supply all of the feed stations of a circular machine. This is because the delivery conveyor blocks access of a hopper loader assembly to some of the feed stations. In addition, hopper loader assemblies have previously been radially aligned with a circular array of feed stations in such a manner that conveyors in the hopper loader assemblies diverge through relatively large distances. The relatively large spacing between the conveyors in the hopper loader assemblies makes it difficult to manually supervise the operation of the hopper loader assemblies and results in inefficient use of floor space.